Wednesday, February 15, 2012

5 Easy Ways to Attract Followers to Your Blog and Brand

In the world of ecommerce and global business it is more than likely that your website includes a blog. There is important information that is shared in your blog but is it something people are excited about reading. You want to create that blog that people wake up every morning or Monday (depending on how often you update your blog) ready to drink their coffee and see what it is that you had to say today. Follow these 5 tips to attract customers to your blog.

Relate to your customer. The easiest way to get customers to hear you is to relate to them. How are you like them and how can you help them from your own learning experiences. Brainstorm and make a list of what you both like and dislike in your industry or niche. Write about how you are frustrated with “such and such” happens and how you overcame that frustration. Story-telling can be intriguing. Rope them in with your ability to relate to them through your own story.

Offer Solutions. Now that you have formed a relationship with the customer because you share the same likes and dislikes you can help them. You don’t have to be the decision-maker for them but simply offer different solutions to the problems or concerns. Even through your story you might have tried one solution and found that didn’t work and you tried another solution and found that was successful for you. You can point out that the first solution could have worked in perhaps a little bit of a different scenario.

Engage your customer. It could be that in your story you didn’t find a solution or maybe you want to hear how other people find a solution and what worked for them. Ask your customer direct questions in your blog and share from one another what worked and what didn’t work. Make sure that you follow through with commenting back to your questions. If you want your customer to speak up you need to let them know that they have been heard and their opinion does matter.

Get an expert. After your initial blog and you find out what people have tried. You could invite an expert in your field to help narrow the scope or explain why certain solutions work better than others. You will gain respect from your customer if they know they can go to your blog and find out the honest truths, the ins and outs and even get advice from a credible source.

A Note from your CEO. The face of the company is your CEO. People value the opinion of the top dog. Have your CEO contribute to the blog on a regular basis. If your CEO doesn't feel comfortable writing his own content, either let him dictate the content into a digital recorder, have it transcribed and just edit it as an article.

Rather than beat your head against a wall, survey your customers as to what topics interest them most and be sure to write and address those from time to time. Be sure to tell your readers that you are answering customer questions - this will let everyone know that you are listening to their feedback.